Quietly, One of the Few
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By Mr Ian Keast
Posted on 03 November 2008
Character: The aggregate of qualities that distinguishes one person or thing from others. (Macquarie Dictionary)
I was talking with a Rector, who several years before had been one of my teaching colleagues. The subject of Christians in teaching had come up and how valuable his experience of training in education and then teaching had been for this new area of ministry for him. “I think the great value of Christians being in teaching,” he said, “is above all else that students are able to see, first-hand and often for the first time, a Christian life lived out in the busyness and pressure of relationships. They see the defining nature of a person’s character, living out the Lordship of Christ, often in difficult situations.”
Character. Living out one’s faith. Being an example in word and deed before young people looking for honesty, authenticity and genuineness. Here is the great challenge for a Christian teacher and when the challenge is taken up, then a powerful and lasting impression is left on our minds.
An example
Let me give you an example from my own school experience – of a teacher whose character made this lasting impression; a teacher who taught us many things about the subject English and, importantly, life. I have tried to capture this in the following poem:
Quietly, One of the Few
Behind the closed classroom door
We sat and smirked with schoolboy arrogance
As we watched his cigarette ash
Trickle from shaking hands.
Our sniggers and mock imitations
Accompanied his nervous twitches.
There was our laughter in Henry V when,
Once more unto the breach dear friends
Came scratching through his
Trembling gramophone arm,
And again the appeal in
His frequently chosen lines,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother...
Opening the door into the playground
Another teacher quietly informed,
“He’d never tell you. He lives on a tightrope.
He was one of Churchill’s Few.”
And we, small boys, laughed no more.
